Case with cartel link to be tried in El Paso

A man arrested in New England was indicted last week on drug conspiracy charges along with a reputed Mexican drug cartel bodyguard, according to federal court documents.

Jonathan Matos, aka "Boricua," is scheduled to go on trial next month in U.S. District Court in El Paso, documents state.

Court records show that the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Matos in Massachusetts on June 21, 2012. He was charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of a controlled substance. He pleaded not guilty.

A superseding indictment filed on June 26 named Matos as a defendant in the drug-conspiracy case against Rigoberto Ruiz Alatorre, who was allegedly the bodyguard for Gabino Salas Valenciano, who is reputedly a high ranking leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel

The six-count indictment accuses Matos of three counts of conspiracy to import a controlled substance and conspiracy to possess marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute.

Matos is schedule to go to trial Aug. 2 in U.S. District Court in El Paso.

The indictment does not list the names of other defendants besides Matos and Ruiz.

Ruiz was allegedly the bodyguard for Salas, who was known as "El Ingeniero" ("The Engineer") and is reputedly the lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel who runs the cartel's operations in the Valley of Juárez. Salas remains at large.

On Feb. 16, 2012, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Ruiz after confronting him in the parking lot of a hotel in El Paso when agents learned he was in the city to allegedly make a drug deal.

Ruiz, according to a federal criminal complaint, allegedly told DEA agents about drug smuggling operations in the Valley of Juárez across the Rio Grande from the Fabens and Fort Hancock area.

Ruiz told the DEA that Salas and others allegedly moved 1,400 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. every week, according to the criminal complaint.

In recent years, the Valley of Juárez was a battleground in the war between the Juárez and Sinaloa cartels as they fought for control of smuggling routes in the farming communities and small towns east of Juárez.

The indictment does not accuse Matos on a count against Ruiz of murder in relation to drug trafficking in the death of Fermin Rodriguez-Gonzalez on July 16, 2006. The location of the homicide and other details were not mentioned.

The now-defunct Albuquerque Tribune reported that a man named Fermin Rodriguez Gonzales, 21, was found shot to death in a truck in Albuquerque on July 16, 2006. The homicide was reported as unsolved and drug-related.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102. Follow him on Twitter @BorundaDaniel